Build-n-Share #195 **Back to School** Due 31 August, 2025

The benefits
First place will be awarded at all levels. If there are at least eight entries in a category, up to four places will also be announced. Challenges also create an opportunity for community on the forum site. We get to know one another's names, share news, builds, and positive words. This is a chance to get your name out there, and hopefully make a few friends along the way.

What makes this challenge different from all the other ones I've seen?
We have been hosting this challenge since the first week the game was released. We have many levels of builders in our community and welcome them all. This group is truly a product of all its great members!

Within the first few challenges, our group was recognized by the gurus that be, who have helped the weekly challenges gain even more popularity be stickying both BuildnShare threads. Since then, we have had at least one featured creation almost every week, and our list of featured members continues to grow.

With 7 successful collaborative neighborhoods (Gnomelandia, Summer of Love, NYC, Sanshi Sumei, Olde Fairy Tale Village, Whimsyville Winter Market and Village) completed, BuildnShare hopes to bring more creative challenges and new neighborhood ideas to the community with the help of our dedicated participants who willingly contribute and help each week to make sure each challenge runs smoothly.

Big thanks to @masajo for keeping this up to date!

Looking for more challenges? Check out the  Build Challenges thread created by @rosemow

@Masajo - Admin, TS4 judge, Entry Organizer and Archivist
@KittKat7147 - On hiatus
@SimTresa - TS4 Judge, Challenge Creator & Challenge Organizer
@SheriGR - TS4 Judge, Chief Organizer & Fearless Facebooker
@AliSim19 - On hiatus
@Allears - TS4 Judge, Image Wrangler & Thread Guru
@JojoMOMSTER - Hawthorne Project Organizer
@Clousinators - TS4 Judge
@_Princess_Natasha_ - TS4 Judge
@pammiechick - TS4 Judge

Screenshots: Tips and Tricks

1. Judging is based solely on the screenshots you provide in your showcase, so, we figured this would be a good time to go over some tips and tricks in taking good screenshots to help showcase your lovely builds.
2. Camera Man Mode - This is a must in taking good shots! You will have to be in live mode to do this, but just hit "TAB" to enter this mode. Once you are in this mode, you can use the mouse to freely control the angles and use "W, A, S, D" buttons to move forward, backwards, and side to side. "Z" zooms in, "X" zooms out. "Q" moves up and "E" moves down. "C" to capture the shot.
3. Find the perfect angle - With photography, it is all about finding the right angle. Spend some time in camera man mode to find the perfect angle. Get down to a sim's point of view to take the best shots of rooms.
4. Walls up - Most people play with walls cut away, but when you are taking pictures of your lot, try to keep your walls up to make your shots look more realistic.
5. No grids - Unless you need to show the grid for a specific purpose, make sure no build/buy grid is visible when you take your pictures. You can avoid this by taking pictures in live mode or by hitting 'G' button in build mode.
6. More is better—Weird, huh? But in this case, we want to make sure judges have enough shots to fairly judge your lot. Be sure to show off each room with at least one picture. Also, please include an overhead shot of the floorplan for each level.
7. Ensure that the majority of your exterior pictures are taken in Summer so that the judges can accurately judge your landscaping. You are also free to show pictures of your builds in different seasons as well, but that these should be clearly labelled with the season.
8. To change the season, you can use this cheat (first as with all cheats you must bring up the console using "CTRL + Shift + C" then type in the box that appears "testingcheats true" If it worked, the phrase "Cheats Enabled" should appear below the console. Next type "seasons.set_season X" - change X to 0 for summer, 1 for fall, 2 for winter, or 3 for spring.

Ok, those are the basics! If you want to further your simatography skills, we highly recommend you take a look at our showcase guide here.

Please try to keep this thread as photo free as possible and create a showcase to illustrate your lots.